René Descartes
René Descartes (31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, mathematician and writer who spent most of his life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the father of modern philosophy, and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day. In particular, his Meditations on First Philosophy continues to be a standard text at most university philosophy departments. Descartes' influence in mathematics is equally apparent; the Cartesian coordinate system — allowing reference to a point in space as a set of numbers, and allowing algebraic equations to be expressed as geometric shapes in a two-dimensional coordinate system (and conversely, shapes to be described as equations) — was named after him. He is credited as the father of analytical geometry, the bridge between algebra and geometry, crucial to the discovery of infinitesimal calculus andanalysis. Descartes was also one of the key figures in the scientific revolution and has been described as an example of genius. He refused to accept the authority of previous philosophers, and refused to trust his own senses. Descartes frequently sets his views apart from those of his predecessors. In the opening section of the Passions of the Soul, a treatise on the early modern version of what are now commonly called emotions, Descartes goes so far as to assert that he will write on this topic "as if no one had written on these matters before". Many elements of his philosophy have precedents in late Aristotelianism, the revived Stoicism of the 16th century, or in earlier philosophers like Augustine. In his natural philosophy, he differs from the schools on two major points: First, he rejects the splitting of corporeal substance into matter and form; second, he rejects any appeal to final ends—divine or natural—in explaining natural phenomena. In his theology, he insists on the absolute freedom of God's act of creation. Tossup Questions # The number of positive real roots of a polynomial can be found by this man's Rule of Signs. His philosophical works include the Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy. He is the namesake of the standard x-y coordinate system. For 10 points, give this French philosopher and mathematician whose most famous attributed quote is "cogito ergo sum," or, "I think, therefore I am." # This thinker argued against philosophical dependence on the senses by pointing out the changes a piece of wax undergoes when it melts. His formulation of the "mind-body problem" has led the influential idea of a separation between mental and physical properties to be known as this man's "dualism." This author of the Meditations on First Philosophy Declared "Je pense donc je suis" in his Discourse on Method. For 10 points, name this French philosopher who declared "I think therefore I am." # In his last published work, this philosopher argued that emotions arise out of the movement of what he termed "animal spirits" in different combinations. That work was his The Passions of the Soul. This philosopher illustrated how the senses can be deceiving by using the analogy of a piece of wax. He argued that because sensory perceptions are involuntary, they must come from an external world in a work in which he began by assuming that an "Evil Demon" was creating his perceptions. # This man paired two works, one published only posthumously, which were entitled The World and The Man. One of his works, which is divided into six parts, explains the interaction between the consciousness and the outside world with a metaphor of impressions on a ball of wax, hypothesizes that the human soul is located in the pineal gland, and begins from a position of absolute (*) skepticism, contemplating the existence of an evil demon and ultimately ending at the conclusion "I think, therefore I am." For 10 points, give the French mathematician and philosopher who wrote Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy. # This philosopher stated that the mind is a "thinking thing" separate from the brain, a concept expanded on in his work The Passions of the Soul. He popularized a style of thinking that eliminated all but basic, or foundational, beliefs, stating that humans could only believe that they were awake. This philosopher put forth a proof that God is real, which stated that if God were not real, he would not be able to think of God. That proof is found in this man's Meditations on First Philosophy. For 10 points, name this philosopher who wrote Discourse on Method, in which he stated "cogito ergo sum," or "I think, therefore I am."